Keep up with Lauren as she serves a mission in Tempe, Arizona for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Monday, January 27th 2013 - Is This Real Life?

This week we showed the Temple Presentation to a family in our ward boundaries and they accepted to have us teach them again! It was a powerful 15 minutes and we're very excited to teach them again today especially since they're a family.

We had a good lesson with Sierra this week about praying often. We can see how the family is slowly changing and progressing. Denise and Sierra finally prayed in front of us. That is a big step for them and we can see the spirit working on them. We're trying to have shorter lessons with them, but they love to talk. :) We love them!

On Saturday, I went on exchanges with Sister Welch and we had a good day! Unfortunately, Sister Beach got the stomach flu that morning. Sister Welch's companion ended up being sick also so it kind of worked out great (not the getting sick part). In the evening we both had this feeling we were supposed to be somewhere, but we couldn't figure out where we were supposed to be. We prayed and we felt like we needed to go to one of their investigator's home. We went and he wasn't there. We were like, okay, where are we really supposed to be? We prayed again and Sister Welch thought to go to a less-active's house. While we were walking to the house we stopped to talk to this man, Carlos. We found out he was visiting from California and he was going to go catch his plane. He had talked with missionaries the day before and they had given him a Book of Mormon. It was a powerful street contact as we bore testimony how the Gospel was going to bless his life. The less-active didn't turn out to be home and the spirit bore witness to both of us Carlos was the reason why we needed to be on that street.

On Sunday, Sister Beach was still very sick so we couldn't go to church. The Elders came and gave her a blessing and she immediately felt better. One of the Elders wanted a turkey feather (he's kind of...special), so the members we live with brought the turkey to him to pluck the feathers. It was the most funniest thing. I couldn't believe he would make that request and second that the member brought the turkey to him so he could pluck it's butt feathers! I kept on saying, "Is this real life?!" I have to say it takes a very special person to do that!

It's crazy because this week I've had a meeting every single day. I'm hardly in my area! I know families can be together forever. Death cannot separate us because of the blessings of the temple. I am so grateful I get to work at the Gilbert Temple Open House and to see the spirit change people once they come out of the temple. This knowledge had blessed my life. I'm grateful for this opportunity to serve and for the precious time I have left to dedicate myself to the Lord. I am so glad this is my life right now in January 2014. I wouldn't trade anything for it.